Readings in Infancy

Jean-François Lyotard (1924-98) was a French philosopher, sociologist, and literary theorist. His interdisciplinary interests included epistemology, communication, modern art, postmodern art, literature, critical theory, the sublime, and the relationship between aesthetics and politics. He was also a director of the International College of Philosophy.Robert Harvey is Distinguished Professor at Stony Brook University, USA. His most recent books are Sharing Common Ground: A Space for Ethics (Bloomsbury, 2017) and Witnessness: Beckett, Levi, Dante and the Foundations of Ethics (Continuum, 2010). From 2001 until 2007, Harvey was a programme director at the Collège International de Philosophie in Paris.Kiff Bamford is Reader in Contemporary Art in the School of Art, Architecture and Design at Leeds Beckett University, UK. He is also an artist and lecturer and the author of Lyotard and the ‘Figural’ in Performance, Art and Writing (Bloomsbury 2012), Jean-François Lyotard: Critical Lives (2017) and editor of Jean-François Lyotard: The Interviews and Debates (Bloomsbury, 2020).

• Foreword, Robert Harvey (Stony Brook University, USA)Infans, J-Fr. Lyotard, trans. Mary LydonReturn: Joyce, J-Fr. Lyotard, trans. Robert Harvey & Mark S. Roberts.Prescription: Kafka, J-Fr. Lyotard, trans Christopher FynskSurvivor: Arendt, J-Fr. Lyotard, trans. Robert Harvey & Mark S. RobertsWords: Sartre, J-Fr. Lyotard, trans. Jeffrey MehlmanDisorder: Valéry, J-Fr. Lyotard, trans. Robert HarveyVoices: Freud, J-Fr. Lyotard, trans. Georges Van Den AbbeeleAfterword, Kiff Bamford (Leeds Beckett University, UK)NotesBibliography of Works by J-Fr. Lyotard in English TranslationIndex

Readings in Infancy marks a genuine turn in Lyotard’s work. After the reflection on the sublime comes the elaboration of the subliminal. Infancy is this non-conscious, prelinguistic state in which the subject is born and yet does not exist. If the sublime is the experience of the too late, the subliminal is that of the too early. In-between them, Lyotard powerfully unravels the traumatic adventure of the unpresentable.